2012 will be a huge geek year at the movies

2012 is going to be a huge year for geek movies, especially with The Dark Knight Rises, The Avengers, John Carter of Mars, new Quentin Tarantino and more.

The last Dark Knight film with Christopher Nolan and Christian Bale is probably the most awaited geek flick of the year, and every geek out there obviously has the July 20, 2012 release date memorized cold.

This fourth of July also brings the Spider-Man reboot, which I’m more skeptical about, but there’s also going be some geek sweat until word gets out that the last Batman will indeed deliver.

On the L.A. Times Hero Complex Poll, Dark Knight is indeed the most anticipated movie as of this writing, with The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey a close second, and indeed, it’s going to be nice to see Peter Jackson return to Middle Earth again on December 14.

I also noticed looking up release dates that early this January, George Lucas’s Red Tails is going up against Steven Soderberg’s Haywire on January 20, and Haywire has gotten very strong early reviews for being a solid, tight action film. (No word yet on Red Tails.)

Pixar’s big test whether they can cut it in live action. John Carter is coming on March 9, while The Hunger Games, which could be a big box office bonanza if fans of the books come out in droves on March 23. 

Sam Raimi’s also returning with Dorothy of Oz in April, and I’m very curious to see the legend of Oz through the prism of Raimi.

The modern day Three Stooges is also going head to head on April 13 again Joss Whedon’s horror film The Cabin in the woods, and blockbuster season begins May 4 with The Avengers, followed by Tim Burton’s Dark Shadows on May 11, and we’ll also finally see if Battleship can finally silence the haters on May 18, or if it’s gonna sink like a stone. It also remains to be seen if anyone still cares about Men in Black when the third installment hits theaters on Memorial Day.

On June 1 Snow White and the Huntsman goes head to head with Rock of Ages, which could possibly help bring the rock film back, and on June 8 comes Ridley Scott’s somewhat prequel to Alien Prometheus. Bryan Singer’s Jack the Giant Killer comes June 15, and Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter comes June 22. Another funny head to head release date, the next G.I. Joe movie will go up against the male stripper comedy (at least I assume it’s a comedy) Magic Mike on June 29.

July are Batman and Spider-Man’s months, while in August we get the Borune Legacy and the reboot of Total Recall on August 3. Not much else to report for that month unless you’re dying to see The Expendables 2 on August 17.

In October there’s also apparently pointless reboots of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Halloween in 3D. 

And December brings us Steven Spielberg’s biopic of Lincoln, starring Daniel Day Lewis, World War Z is December 12, Kathryn Bigelow (The Hurt Locker) is back with Kill Bin Laden on December 19, and Quentin Tarantino’s  epic Django Unchained comes out on Christmas day, as does Baz Luhrmann’s remake of The Great Gatsby.